A Fallen Gem
by SpookyDJ
Summary: (Jaspertale) In the year 201X, an earthquake causes someone neither human nor monster to fall into the Earth. They land in the Underground, where a small family finds and takes care of them. Leaving the Underground is impossible, so they begrudgingly stay. They may be stuck here, but it at least gives them time to think and learn a little. (Contains Steven Universe Spoilers)
1. J A S P E R

**Here we are! Everyone's been joking about "Jaspertale", where when Jasper disappears into the earth she actually shows up in the Underground, and I guess this is my contribution. Of course, most people play the joke with Jasper as Frisk, and it's all completely in humor. I've gone in a little bit of a different direction, and this story takes itself way more seriously than it should, but that's alright, I think.**

 **I wanted this chapter to be done before the next episode comes out, while the Jaspertale joke is still going strong and staying fresh. That being said, this story has multiple chapters. I have no idea how many, how long they'll be, or how long they'll take to write out. This isn't the only story I'm writing now, or that I want to write, and this is largely just a huge improvisation. I know a lot of things that will happen, there's a definite direction, and there's a definitive end coming. But I'm still making up a lot as I go, I made a lot of this up as I go. I don't really have that much of a plan, and it's probably obvious.**

 **But if you want to bare with me, this WILL keep going. Jasper WILL see most of the Underground, she'll meet several more monsters. Even if it's long after the joke's played out and everyone's either sick of it or has forgotten, I will keep going and this will end.**

* * *

Lastly, I have no idea if there's anyone to really credit for Jaspertale itself. If it's something one person came up with and everyone followed suit, or many people thought of it around the same time and it's really no single person's creation. If there's someone I should be crediting, tell me, otherwise, Jaspertale is absolutely not my own idea.

Once upon a time, in the year 201x, a giant earthquake split open part of the Earth's surface. Most around were relatively unscathed, but a giant orange body slipped through and fell underground. It'd be impossible for anyone who observed to tell just how far underground she went, but she was visibly gone. No one on the surface could see her. However, the only assumption they thought they could make, the only fact of her whereabouts, was completely false.

They thought that wherever she was, no one was down there with her, aside from some gemstone mutants that might be down there with her.

The fall underground was slow and long. She, of course, didn't mind. She couldn't mind at all, unconscious as she was. But it came to an end eventually, when she tumbled down an underground waterfall and fell next to a large pile of trash. Even now, she still hadn't woken up. No one was around either, so she stayed there, motionless and unnoticed for some time. She stayed there, until a small child wandered into the area.

"There's always tons of cool stuff in the dump," the child mumbled. "Maybe I'll find something cool this time, too. Something really fun."

The child was still at the entrance to the dump, a ways off from where the fall had ended, but they didn't stay there for long. Soon they were wading through the junk-infested water, digging through heaps of garbage to see what they could find. They didn't stop at all, until they found her. Of course, she was hard to miss. She was bigger than some of the garbage piles, and not much in this dump was as bright orange as she was. The child would have more difficulty missing her altogether.

"What's this over here?" the child asked themself. They slowly got closer, stopping immediately when they saw her face. This wasn't some _thing_ , it was some _one_ , they knew now. "Oh no! Um, are you alright?"

She was still unconscious, and couldn't respond. The child was quick to notice this.

"Um, um, okay. Um..." They looked around to see if anyone else was here, turning back to her when they saw the two of them were alone. "Um, it'll be okay! I'll get my parents to come help! I'll be back, don't move!"

They ran off, back towards the entrance. Never hearing their words, she didn't respond, but she didn't move, either. She stayed, once again in complete silence.

* * *

True to their word, the child did come back. This time, they weren't alone.

Following behind them were two others, looking very much like them. They hurried to her; the child running in front, the other two moving quickly close behind. Once the trio reached her, one of the others (probably their mother) knelt down and began to examine her. After a tense couple of minutes, she stopped and looked back to her family.

"It's alright, dear," she assured them, especially the frightened child. "They don't seem to be injured, they're just unconscious. It'll be okay. But we can't let them rest here, they could get sick. We can take them to our house."

The third companion nodded in agreement. The child looked at the two of them and smiled, though their eyes betrayed their fear.

"Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad."

"It's no problem at all, my child," the mother said. "We should hurry, before it gets too late."

The mother and the father carefully picked her up and started to carry her, out of the dump and towards their own home. The child was not far behind, still keeping a careful eye on her until they were all back home. They'd feel better when she woke up.

* * *

Eventually, the family made it back to their home. She, of course, made it back with them. She wasn't quite awake yet, but she was starting to show some sign of life now. This was good.

The mom and the dad put her down on a couch in a living area. It was...a little small for her, but for now it would do. They took turns watching over her, and the child never left her side. But it was when the mother was watching her that she started murmuring in her sleep. The words were hard to make out, but the mother and the child thought they heard her saying something about lasagna, or polka dots, or some kind of flower or something.

"Mom, what's lasagna?" the child asked. "Is it some kind of human food?"

"I am not sure," the mother told them. "I'm not even sure that this _is_ a human. If they are, they're certainly different from any human your father and I ever saw."

"If it is human food, I bet they're hungry," the child muttered. "I hope they wake up soon..."

"I'm sure they will, my child," the mother assured them. "And when they do, I'll have a big butterscotch cinnamon pie waiting for them."

They waited in silence once more, listening to whatever she was mumbling about.

Around half an hour later, the mother left to work in the kitchen. The father wasn't back either, gone to take care of the garden. Thus, the child was left to watch her by themself. They didn't mind at all, of course. They were prepared to sit there as long as it took for her to wake up.

Their persistence paid off. Before either parent came back, she finally began to open her eyes.

"Lazuli..." she muttered, her eyes still only half open.

"Hey! Are you okay?" The child leaned over her, their face only inches away from her. They frowned down at her, their eyes huge.

She looked back up at them, blinking a few times. Hard as she tried, it was impossible to focus on who was in front of her. She frowned as well, her mind still hazy. "...Steven..."

"I don't know who that is, but that's not my name..." The child looked away for a minute, thinking, before looking at her again. "Just take it easy, okay? You'll feel better soon."

She made an indifferent grunt and closed her eyes again. The child smiled, now sure she would be okay eventually. Everything was quiet once again.

A few seconds later, she opened her eyes again, her eyes completely open this time.

"WHERE ARE THEY?"

"Hwaa-" The child flinched and jumped back. It didn't save them from her wrath. She sat up and roughly shoved them to the side, her gaze now searching around the room for her enemies.

"Those pathetic little...they've humiliated me for the last time!" Effortlessly, she stood up and stormed around the room. She continued her search, as if her foes were hiding in the corner. "I won't be defeated by the likes of them anymore! Never again!"

"A-are you sure you're okay to be moving around like that?" the child questioned. "You just woke up..."

She ignored them. "Even resorting to their cheap tricks didn't work. They just put more of them together. But I'll make them pay next time. They'll with they never..." She paused, visually sweeping the room one last time before sighing. "They're not here."

"Uh, it's just me and mom and dad..." the child mumbled.

"They'll PAY for this!" She ignored them and left the room. The child ran after her, concern evident on their face. "Those miserable Crystal Gems, that kid with Rose's powers, Lazuli...I'm never fusing again. Not after being trapped in this worthless planet's ocean." Not paying attention to where she was going, she went down a set of stairs, through a long hallway. The child stayed close behind the whole way. "Lazuli will _suffer_ for this."

The child wanted to respond, but they didn't have the chance. They were much smaller than she was, and keeping up was a huge effort. It was all they could do to try to catch their breath.

"Once I get out of here, I'll find them. They love this planet so much, they're all bound to be around somewhere. And once I find them..." She went on ranting, most of it not really making sense to the child. She wanted revenge, that was clear enough, but that was about all they could figure out.

She, of course, knew exactly what she was talking about. She remembered everything that happened since she got to this stupid planet all too clearly.

Soon enough, the two found themselves in the father's garden. He was still there, looking out for weeds and watering flowers. He stopped when he saw her, awake and moving around.

"Howdy!" He waved, grinning up at her. "I'm glad to see you're awake and well. How do you feel? You're welcome to stay as long as you-"

She barely paused to acknowledge him. Quickly, she stepped forward and shoved him aside into the wall, making a beeline to the exit on the other side. The child wasn't sure whether to follower her or check on the father. A quiet "golly" from the father convinced them he was alright, and they ran after her.

"You should stop!" the child warned her. "You can't..."

She continued to ignore them. She went on, ranting and planning and scheming the entire way, until they reached the barrier. Not noticing anything that seemed odd, she tried to keep going, only to be forcibly stopped by the barrier. She walked into it again, and pounded a fist on it to no avail.

"What sort of cheap magic IS this?" she demanded.

"That's the barrier," the child told her. "The humans put it up here long ago to keep us in here. You have to have at least a monster soul and a human soul to go through. Only seven human souls can break it. You're...stuck in the Underground. You can't leave."

She groaned and sat down in front of it. "This is probably just another cowardly scheme from those Gems to keep me down here. They won't even face me in a real fight. They're despicable."

"Maybe...but we're all trapped down here," the child pointed out. "The barrier's been up for a long time, before I was even born."

Once again, she groaned. "I just freed myself from being trapped in the ocean because of Lazuli for who knows how long. I was only free for a few minutes, and now I'm trapped all over again."

"That sounds awful...I'm really sorry, uh..." the child frowned, tilting their head. "...What's your name?"

"...Jasper," she begrudgingly responded.

"Jasper. That's a nice name. My name is Asriel, Asriel Dreemurr," the child told her. "Don't worry, Jasper. You won't be stuck again if I can help it. We'll find a way to get you out, and everyone else, too!"

"...Heh." A smile sneaked onto her face as she looked to the side. "I don't know how much you can do, but I guess I appreciate it, kid."

* * *

"I am sorry that you are stuck here," the mother sighed, looking at Jasper and Asriel on the couch in front of her. "You must really want to get back to the surface. But you are welcome to stay here as long as you like. Even if you can take care of yourself, you don't have to be alone down here. No matter what, we want you to be happy."

Jasper nodded, looking off towards the wall. "Yeah...I guess I can stay. At the very least, I can learn more about this place."

"Excellent!" The mother grinned, clearly excited about this decision. "I'll go get the pie I made. We can have it to celebrate!"

She went back out to the kitchen, leaving Jasper and Asriel alone. While they waited, he turned towards her, a million questions on his tongue.

"So...you did fall from the surface, right?" he asked.

"I guess so." Her gaze stayed glued to the wall. "I don't remember falling, but I wasn't down here before."

"Then, if you're from the surface..." Asriel frowned. "...Does that mean you're a human?"

Jasper laughed. "Those pathetic creatures? Please. I'm way more powerful than that, kid. If I were human, I think I'd rather be dead."

Asriel looked down at the floor, as if the answers to his questions were down there. "Are you a monster, then? I mean, if you're not human..."

"You mean like you three? I don't think so," she snorted. "I'm not from this planet, kid. I'm not anything you've probably ever seen."

"Then does that mean you're an alien?"

"I guess, if that's what you call it."

Asriel looked back up at her, his eyes lighting up. "Then you must be the coolest alien ever!"

She looked back at him from the corners of her eyes and smirked.

* * *

Later, the family of three with the addition of Jasper gathered around the table. The mother stood up to distribute her butterscotch cinnamon pie amongst the family, while everyone else sat at their places. Once she finished, she sat down as well, and they all prepared to eat.

"It's my favorite recipe," she told Jasper as the father and Asriel began to dig in. "I hope you do enjoy it, we eat it quite often."

"Uh..." She looked between the father and Asriel for a moment, before looking back at the mother. "I don't do that, uh, 'eat' thing. I don't think I can."

"Oh, well, that's alright!" The mother threw a nervous smile at her. "I'm sorry, I wouldn't have given you any if I had realized. I hope you don't mind."

"It's fine," Jasper grunted.

The mother joined the other two in eating the pie, while Jasper contemplated her own in silence. The room was rather quiet until the family finished.

"Thanks, mom! It was delicious!" Asriel exclaimed.

"That's the best one you've made yet," the father added, smiling at her.

The mother laughed. "You two say that every time! But than you all the same."

She laughed for another moment as the father turned to look at Jasper. He still wore the same smile on his face. It radiated kindness, which she was sure to meet with complete indifference.

"So..." He hesitated, thinking about his words carefully. "We're glad to have you here. It's been some time since we had a guest...but we don't mind at all, and there's nothing we want in return. And you don't have to tell us anything about us that you don't want to, but...it'd be nice to know your name. To have something to call you, at least."

Jasper prepared a cut response, and she was about to give it. But Asriel broke in before she said a word, his eyes twinkling with excitement.

"It's Jasper! Her name's Jasper! She says she's not a human or a monster!"

Little brat. She'd only told him because he asked. She wasn't sure she really wanted to broadcast that if no one down here could tell. Maybe she should've just said she was a monster, if that was what the beings down here were. Blending in could've given her a tactical advantage. Unfortunately, it was far too late for that. Next time she needed to think before she spoke.

"Jasper? Well, then, Jasper, it's nice to meet you," the father said. "My name is Asgore. My wife here is Toriel. We promise we'll do everything we can to make sure you're happy down here."

* * *

 **I know this is short, I'm sorry. I have no idea if every chapter will be like this, or if the next one will be longer or maybe even shorter. I have no plan. But hopefully the next one doesn't take too long.**


	2. Stronger Monsters

**Here we are, chapter 2! It only took me a couple of days to write this, but I've been busy and resting a lot, so it still took awhile! Sorry about that. Jaspertale's not really all that relevant now with all these new episodes coming up focusing on everyone else, but that's fine. I don't have any plans to stop!**

 **Here's one of many monsters besides the Dreemurrs that Jasper will be meeting! I'm sure you can imagine who most of them will be, though. Enjoy!**

* * *

Jasper found herself waking up on the Dreemurr family's couch. Had she done that...'resting' thing again? She definitely hadn't meant to. She'd just sat down on the couch, trying to figure out some way she could get out of here, after Asriel, Asgore, and Toriel had gone to rest themselves. After that, it must've just...happened. No other reasonable explanation came to mind.

Fighting against Lazuli for control of that abomination must've tired her out more than she'd thought.

Now that she was conscious again, however, it was time for more thinking. She'd done enough sitting around, doing nothing, for a lifetime since she got here. And that was just one day. Staying here for too long would drive her crazy. Action needed to be taken. Something needed to be done. Jasper wasn't someone who'd wait for her own freedom. She'd seize it for herself.

Trouble was, Asriel said she'd at least need a human soul to be able to leave. Of course, that was only if he was telling the truth, but even if it was a lie, she could beat the truth out of him. She couldn't think of any reason not to trust him, though. It'd be hard for the Crystal Gems to work with these creatures when they were stuck all the way down here, and Asriel didn't seem like the type to do something like that, anyway. He was soft, weak. The whole family practically wore their hearts on their sleeves, never hesitating to help or to tell her anything. As sickeningly pathetic as they all were, she was pretty sure she could trust all three of them.

Believing them brought up some different issues, though. Going through that barrier required different numbers of human and monster souls, depending on whether you wanted to break it or just pass through. Breaking it take way too long, so that left the other option. At least a human soul or a monster soul was needed. But she was a gem; she wasn't either. Would her...'soul', or whatever, count as one or the other? Or as neither? Would she need to find both souls to escape? When it came down to it, one of the Dreemurrs, maybe Asriel, would probably help, but that left the other soul.

The human soul.

In order to leave, she'd need a human's help. That was obvious from her attempt the day before; Asriel had been with her, so if she only needed a monster's soul, they would've gone through. A human was needed. Of course, there weren't any down here. They were all on the surface, busy being coddled by those Crystal Gems. But even if a human was down here, being helped by them disgusted her. Actually asking them for their help was an even worse thought. She hated the thought of stooping that low.

She hated the thought that she might have to even more.

Now she found herself running in circles. She was back at the beginning: she needed a human soul if she wanted to leave. It didn't look like she was going to figure out an alternative right this second, not with her limited knowledge. That was the advantage of staying with this family, though. She was sure to learn more, and they were happy to give her that knowledge. They lived so close to the barrier, so no one could know more. She could probably even attempt to leave whenever she wanted, try out any ideas. Heh, that'd been a brilliant idea on her part.

She had to admit, staying at this house had a lot of perks. The kid said he'd help her find a way to escape, too. If there was another way, they'd definitely find it. ...Though, speaking of him, where was he, anyway? She pulled herself out of her thoughts as she looked around the room.

The Dreemurr family had all already been awake when she woke up. Toriel wasn't here, so she was probably making food or cleaning or whatever it was Earth mothers do. She could hear a door close, so it sounded like Asgore had just gone outside. Asriel, however, was in the room with her. He was sitting on the floor, rubbing colored sticks against a piece of paper. How long had he been here, doing that? She needed to be observant, even when she was lost in her thoughts.

Or maybe, she conceded, this was more evidence she was still exhausted from fighting for control of Malachite. As much as she didn't like the idea, she should probably keep resting today, too.

"What're you doing, kid?" Jasper asked him, deciding to strike up conversation. If she was going to rest, then there was nothing better to do. Plus, the weird activity with the colored sticks did strike her as odd.

"'m coloring," he responded absently. He looked engrossed with whatever 'coloring' was supposed to be, he didn't even look up.

"'Coloring'?" she repeated. "What weird Earth activity is that?" Curious as she was about coloring, Jasper had already decided it was stupid, worthless. There'd been nothing like this on Homeworld, after all.

"It's fun! I've got my crayons-" Asriel paused to hold up his crayons so she could see. "-and I can use them to draw pictures of whatever I want! Like this!" He put down the crayons and picked up the piece of paper for her to see.

She squinted at it, trying to make it out. "What's this orange blob supposed to be?"

"It's you!" He grinned at her, moving one of his hands to point at different parts of the picture. "You're orange. The yellow thing's your nose. The gray stuff's your hair. I wasn't sure what color your clothes should be, so I picked red."

"Huh..." Jasper frowned. She still couldn't see it. "If you say so. I still don't see the point of this."

"It's fun," Asriel reiterated. "You should try it! I bet you'd like it, too. Everyone likes coloring."

She snorted. "Thanks, but I'll pass, kid. That's not really my idea of fun."

"Then what do you like to do?" he asked. He sat down the picture, smiling at her. "We can do that instead!"

"Me?" Jasper blinked, mulling it over. Of course, she quickly knew there was really only one answer. "Fighting. It's what I was made for, it's all I ever done. So if I'm facing against a good enough opponent, someone who really is a challenge... Nothing's more fun than that."

Now it was Asriel's turn to frown. "That's it? But you haven't even thought about fighting anyone that's down here, as far as I know..."

"I need time to rest before that, kid," she shrugged. "But I wouldn't even if I didn't. You're nice or whatever, but the three of you are soft. Not even close to a challenge. It'd be a waste of my time, honestly, so I wouldn't bother."

"Hmm..." Asriel scratched his cheek. "Maybe watching a fight would be good enough, then. Not many monsters really fight down here, but there's the Royal Guard!"

"Royal Guard, huh?" Jasper could guess what that was.

"Uh-huh! They protect the kingdom, and they used to fight in the war. They're all really good at fighting. The captain comes over all the time to train with Dad!"

She grinned. "The captain, huh? I'm in. When's the next time they train?"

Asriel jumped up, motioning for her to get up and follow him. "I think they're training later today, actually! We should ask Dad if we can watch, but I don't think he'll mind."

Jasper nodded as she stood up. She followed Asriel to the front of the house, where he opened the door to go outside. Asgore stood in the middle of it, holding a rectangle with a tail to his ear. He laughed into it as they approached, before saying something she didn't catch, pushing a button, and putting it away. Perhaps it was some sort of Earth communication device. She really wasn't impressed.

Though, while she was out here, she supposed she should take the time to see what it looked like and enjoy the change of scenery. Since she'd woken up, she stuck to the house and hadn't really one outside. Out here, it was...really gray. It looked like Asgore was keeping some plotted plants here and there to make the place look nicer, but otherwise it was lifeless out here. Just city, buildings, and walls as far as she could see.

She could almost feel it, too. As part of Malachite, with access to Lazuli's power over water, she had been able to feel the pull of water living beings on this planet seemed to contain. It had been everywhere; overwhelming her during the brief time at that city, shocking them at the bottom of the ocean, even coming from all sides at the island full of Stevens. Of course, she couldn't feel it now, but she remembered the waterless and lifeless feel of structures like the ones in front of her now. There certainly wasn't much life here, besides the monsters.

Asriel asked Asgore if they could watch his training session, breaking her out of her thoughts for good. She was honestly glad for that. Dwelling over the other Gems on the planet wasn't good for her, especially while she was stuck.

"If you both want to, of course!" Asgore was chuckling. "I don't mind, and Undyne usually loves an audience. Just make sure to stay safe and out of the way, you two. No training for you until you're older, Asriel. And Jasper should rest until she's had some time to recover. I'm sure the fall and anything before was awful for her."

She looked down at the kid. He was practically beaming up at his father. She couldn't help but smile at that. Excitement's contagious, especially with a fight looming in the air.

* * *

They had all moved out behind the house. Asgore stood still, prepared to start at any moment. Asriel and Jasper sat far off to the side, ready to watch but not interfere. The training session had not yet started; the captain had only just arrived, and needed to prepare. Asgore waited patiently. Asriel was wiggling his feet and making weird sounds in his throat, somethin he knew as humming but Jasper didn't recognize. She herself tapped her fingers against the ground impatiently. The whole needed to start already.

"So," she started after a long silence, turning to look at Asriel. "Why does the captain train with Asgore, anyway? No offense, but there's got to be someone better."

"Huh?" He blinked, looking back at her. "Well, Undyne's always the one who asks to train with Dad. He's one of the best fighters in the kingdom. She's never beaten him at his full strength, so she keeps training and trying until she can."

Jasper honestly found that hard to believe. "Well, if he's so good, why isn't he the captain of the Royal Guard? Why her?"

Asriel shrugged. "He picked her to be the captain. They're the only two that can pick anyone to join the Royal Guard. Dad joining the Royal Guard would be weird, anyway. They're supposed to protect the king, so letting the king join wouldn't make sense."

"Wait, you're telling me..." She turned her head to look over at Asgore, then looked back at Asriel again. "He's the KING of the Underground?"

"Uh-huh!" He grinned at her. "And Mom's the queen! So that makes me the prince, I guess."

"Wow, I had no idea you guys were in charge. You certainly don't act like it," she mumbled, focusing her attention back on the imminent fight.

Asriel starting make strange noises from his mouth, this time something he knew as whistling. Jasper was silent again, though still restless. Asgore was still unmoving, still waiting.

This went on for another few minutes. But it didn't last long, since Jasper was getting more tired of waiting by the second.

"Why'd he pick her, then? They had to meet somehow, right?"

He giggled. "You haven't heard the story?"

"Kid, I just got down here." She rolled her eyes. "I haven't even met anyone else. How am I supposed to know?"

"Yeah, I guess that's true," he conceded. In the background, the captain had just walked out of the house, ready for battle, but neither observer noticed. "Alright, so here's how it goes...

"Before I was born, and when she was younger, she used to try to fight everyone she met. She wanted to be the best, way before she joined the Royal Guard. But everyone says she had a habit of never picking the right opponents. Anyone she challenged was either way stronger than her, or way weaker. But it never stopped her.

"Then one day, she met Dad. She knew who he was, of course. Everyone did. But it didn't bother her. She challenged him anyway, and he accepted. He didn't throw a single attack at her, and he dodged everything she threw at him. She was exhausted after awhile, and he won. So she started to challenge him as often as possible, determined to get a hit in on him. And she kept at it. Once she had hit him once, she bumped up her goals and kept challenging him."

A spear appeared in the captain's hands. Asgore raised his trident. Still, neither member of the conversation noticed. Jasper was wrapped up in the story, and Asriel was wrapped up in telling it.

"Dad was impressed every time," Asriel continued. "And she improved with each fight. So eventually, he made her the captain of the Royal Guard. But that didn't stop her. She kept at it. She's still determined that one of these days, she can beat him." He glanced towards Asgore at the end of the story, and gasped. "They're about to start!"

Grinning, Jasper turned away and put her full attention towards the training session they were about to watch.

In the small second before things got chaotic, she took a chance to get a good look at the captain. She was fully dressed up strong armor. It probably wasn't necessary for a training session, but Jasper had no doubt that stuff was heavy. She probably wore it to practice moving around and fighting in it more than anything. If her size was anything to go by, it probably took awhile to get used to. The only part of the captain Jasper could see was red hair stuck in a long ponytail, flowing out from the helmet. Probably to keep it out of the way. It was a good idea; Jasper figured she should probably try it sometime.

"Ready, Asgore?" the captain asked.

"Whenever you are," Asgore responded with a smile.

From there, it was an all-out battle. Blue spears began appearing all over the area and flew all over the place, attempting to hit Asgore at least once. (Of course, the captain was careful to make sure the spears didn't get anywhere near Asriel or Jasper). Asgore dodged each of them with ease, coming out without a scratch when the spears stopped. When he found an opening, he waved his hand. A wall of fireballs closed in on the captain, who dodged the attack without difficulty as well.

This was better than Jasper had thought. These two weren't bad at all, and the whole thing was very entertaining.

Asgore told her not to hold back, to give him everything she had. She told him to do the same.

Something green appeared in front of Asgore, and he was stuck in place. He held out his trident like some sort of shield and used it to block the spears she began throwing at him again. They came at him in all sorts of crazy patterns, going faster and faster, but he didn't fail to block a single one. And to her credit, the captain wasn't frustrated by this. She seemed to be expecting it, in fact, and she probably was if Asriel's story was anything to go by. Asgore was better than he looked.

The green thing disappeared. Asgore ran up to her and held up his trident, which was glowing with magic. He swung it at her several times as it displayed different colors of magic, and the captain came out of it completely unscathed. He, too, seemed to be expecting this.

As the battle wore on, though, it was clear Asgore had the advantage. Was it because he had more experience? Or was he pacing himself out more, not using all his best attacks at once? Jasper couldn't really say for sure. But it was clear from her viewpoint that the captain was wearing out. She moved slower, attacked less, and while she still dodged Asgore's attacks, they were closer to hitting her each time. She was barely keeping up, while Asgore didn't seem to be having much trouble at all. By the time they finished the training session, the captain had taken at least one hit, and had been too close to taking many more. She could've been hurt badly if it continued. But she wouldn't admit it, and Asgore didn't mention it at all.

"I can't believe I let myself get hit," she muttered as she took off all her armor. "I still have a long ways to go, but I know what I need to do to get there. Thanks, Asgore."

"It's no trouble at all," he assured her. "It's always a pleasure to see how far you've come already. I know the safety of the kingdom is in good hands with you."

"Right. You always say that, don't you? But it's always good to hear," she agreed as she pulled off her helmet. All the armor was off now; apparently Asgore kept it stored somewhere in the house for her. Walking all the way here through Hotland was supposedly a challenge. (If Hotland was anything like it sounded, though, Jasper couldn't blame her.)

As he picked up all the armor to take back inside, Asgore kept the conversation going. "Oh! We have a guest here, too. She fell from the surface, but she's not a human or anything. She wanted to see the training session for herself. Apparently she has quite the interest in fighting herself, so I'm sure you'd get along. She's sitting over there, her name is Jasper." His hands were full, so he nodded in the direction Jasper was sitting in.

The captain turned to look at her. Jasper now was engrossed in something Asriel was telling her, but looked up when she saw her looking. The captain smiled and walked over.

"Hey. Jasper, right? The name's Undyne," she introduced herself. "Asgore says you seem to enjoy battling. We'll have to train together sometime."

"I couldn't agree more. You were pretty impressive out there," Jasper said. "I'll have to wait on it, though. I hate to admit it, but...I'm not really at my best right now. Training with you like this would be an insult to your skills. I'd rather wait until I can give it my all."

Undyne nodded. "That's fine. It's probably best for you to wait until then, anyway. You don't want to overdo it. But feel free to drop by when you're up for it." She flashed a toothy grin at her. "I'll be looking forward to it."

Jasper grinned back. "So will I."

* * *

 **I thought I was going to need to add more to this, but this was good enough on its own, so that's fine! I don't mind at all.**

 **There's a couple of things that can happen next, but I'm not sure what to do first, so it might be a bit before I continue. They're both important to the story so both events will happen, and depending on how things go they might even happen in the same chapter. We'll see. I know just about everything that will happen, but not necessarily how and in what order, and I have the strongest sense of how the ending will be more than anything. But it'll still be fun! We'll get there!**


	3. Anticipation

**Whoa! Guys, the amount of attention this has gotten is insane. Across everywhere this is posted, at least sixty people like this, over thirty people are following this...it might not seem like big numbers, but to me that's absolutely crazy. I don't usually get that much attention on anything. And I really appreciate it! Thank you all so much, whether you just decided to glance at it for a minute or you're following this really closely! It means a lot!**

 **I've also gotten a lot of positive comments too, and I haven't really responded to much, but I appreciate it all the same! You guys are great! I'm way too shy to really say anything back though, so if you actually want me to say something back, you're more likely to catch me on tumblr. But otherwise, you're definitely free to keep commenting here if you want! And if you don't want to say anything, that's fine too! I appreciate you all the same.**

 **I'm really sorry this one took so long, and then after all that time it ended up being pretty short. A lot of stuff's come up; an unexpected family emergency, I was sick for awhile, I was also busy for quite awhile, and even now, I have no energy and I really need to go to the doctor. Between all of that and the chapter itself, it just took way too long. I'm not great at writing chapters like this. But hopefully it won't take so long next time, and I'll have a little to show for myself.**

 **At the very least, I've done the math, and the way I have this planned this story should have somewhere around eight chapters.**

* * *

"Are you sure it'll be okay?" Asriel frowned. "I don't want you to get hurt..."

Jasper grinned at him. "I'll be fine, kid, honest. I've been itching for a fight, and like I said, I was made for this stuff. I've rested more than enough, I'm ready."

Some time had passed since Undyne had come for the training session. If the cycles between the Dreemurrs being awake and being asleep were anything to go by, it had been several days. (Of course, Jasper had slept during quite a few of those 'nights', too, but that wasn't something she'd openly admit to.) Toriel, Asgore, Jasper, and Asriel had spent most of those days quietly at the house. However, Jasper was getting close to her full strength again, and she was getting anxious to get out. She was ready to take up Undyne's offer on a training session.

"Well, okay...Mom and Dad said that it was fine, so I guess it's okay..." Asriel muttered. "But Mom said I have to go with you, so you don't get lost. Is that okay?"

"It's not like I know where Undyne lives, so I guess," she shrugged. "Besides, kid, you'll get to see me fight. I'm sure you'll have fun, too."

He nodded. "Undyne knows we're coming, so she'll be expecting us at any minute. We shouldn't make her wait too long!"

He ran out the front door, and she was close behind him.

The first time she had been out here, she'd only went out to the front yard, but it had been enough to form a first impression. Walking through the area with Asriel, however, was changing her opinion. What seemed dull, dreary, and dead before was now busy, full of life, and held a little too much excitement. There were monsters everywhere, from vendors selling food and plants to some just walking through the place, like the kid and herself. Practically everyone was talking to someone else. It was much louder here than it had been at the house. It was almost a bit much, and she wasn't sure she'd want to deal with all this without the promise of a training session.

That is to say, she did enjoy all this activity. Nothing ever happened at the Dreemurr home, and she was a gem of action more than anything else. It had just been a long time since she'd been somewhere like this, somewhere this... populated. It'd take awhile to readjust to it again.

Jasper surely would've gotten lost if she'd been on her own, but it was a good thing Asriel tagged along, if just for this purpose. He seemed to know all the routes possible, and every shortcut that would minimize travel time. It wasn't all that long before they left that place and went somewhere new.

The new area was warm. Extremely warm. Lava could be seen bubbling around as far as her eyes could see, and there was a lot of technology in place to help navigate around that. It seemed to be less populated here, but whereas the previous area had all kinds of monsters, the monsters in this place ('Hotland', Asriel told her) followed more of a theme. Many of the monsters were made of fire, or at the very least parts of them were. A few looked like walking, talking volcanoes. They all seemed to have the 'hot' part down. It was quieter here too, which Jasper appreciated. At least right now, she preferred this, just a little bit.

Something in her thoughts noted Peridot would like this place, too, but she really didn't care what Peridot liked.

The trip through Hotland was even shorter, since there was a shortcut that went from one end to the other. Just as soon as they were in, they were out again, and Jasper found herself someplace new once more.

This place was calmer, and darker. It wasn't hard to see at all, though, since just about everything here seemed to be luminescent. Even the water, which was weird, but it looked nice, she supposed. There was a lot of water, too, way more of it than there were any monsters around. In fact, through this part of the trek she didn't see any monsters at all. That explained the calm feeling, and how quiet it was. This would probably be a good spot to be by herself and just relax, if she wanted to. But she didn't now, and doubted she would in the future.

Something in her thoughts noted Lazuli might like this place, but she cared even less what Lazuli thought.

Getting through here (she was told by Asriel this was 'Waterfall) took just as little time as with Hotland. They didn't have to go far, since this was where Undyne lived. It wasn't long before her house was in sight, and they were at the door.

"A training dummy, huh?" Jasper noted the dummy to the side of the yard. "I like her style."

Asriel knocked on the door, which was quickly opened. Undyne looked down at him, smiled, then looked up at Jasper. Her smile grew.

"Good to see you made it! You ready to do this?" Undyne asked.

"Of course." Jasper frowned. "Can the kid stay, though? I don't know my way back."

"Definitely! Kids love deadly weapons!"

From there, there was little talk. Both warriors were focused on the impending battle. They squared off at opposite sides of the yard; Undyne in front of her house, and Jasper opposite of her. Asriel was left to decide where he could watch from that would still be safe. He thought about going by the training dummy, and even started to hide behind it, before thinking better of it. He hesitated for a moment, then ran inside Undyne's house and peeked out the window. He still didn't feel safe there, but it was his best option.

"Even if we're just training, I won't go easy on you," Undyne warned.

Jasper smiled. "Don't worry, I plan on giving it all I've got."

"Good. I wouldn't accept any less. But before we get into it, I want to see how good you are at defense." She chuckled. "I don't wanna go overboard."

"Fine by me."

Undyne's hands twitched. When Jasper looked up, there were spears up in the air, all over the yard, pointing directly at her. A single spear rested in Undyne's hands. Jasper had about a second to look at them all before they all flew at her at once. It was on.

She may have been a bit bulky, but she could still be agile. Dodging the spears was easy for Jasper. After all, she'd faced much worse many times before. Multiple enemies facing her at once, with far more dangerous weapons hitting at her faster. She could keep up with a few spears. Though, she had to admit, she could be doing a little better. At one point, she only let her guard up for one minute, and Undyne had her cornered. But even then she could handle the situation fine. All she had to do was use a short spindash, up the wall and around her attack, and she was back in the game. Undyne seemed impressed.

She'd been at war, fought on the battlefield countless times. Practice was nothing.

"Not bad," Undyne commented. "But let's see how you handle this."

With her spear in hand, she dashed forward faster than Jasper could react. Undyne slashed, and Jasper braced herself for the pain. But it never came. She looked down, and there wasn't any sign that she'd been hit. It made her wonder if Undyne had missed, but when she looked up, Undyne looked triumphant. Whatever happened, she must have succeeded. But what?

Spears appeared all around her again, temporarily suspended in the air. Jasper went to move in order to dodge, but she couldn't. She was frozen in place. She tried to move again, to go anywhere, but she was stuck. Undyne laughed.

"As long as your soul is green, you can't dodge my attacks! You'll have to take them head on. Though..." She frowned, her eyes focused on Jasper's face. "I don't think I've seen this before. ...No, this is definitely a new one."

Jasper blinked. A green light was shining right in her face. It was really bright, and almost a little distracting. She couldn't see it, but it was actually her nose causing the light by glowing green. She looked at the light for a moment, then shook her head. There wasn't time to let herself get distracted now.

Undyne shrugged. "Doesn't really matter, I guess." Lifting up her spear, she threw it directly at her opponent. Once again, Jasper braced herself for the hit, and once again, it never came. Instead, it landed at her feet. She picked it up and held it in both hands, preparing to use it to block spears pointed directly at her. She was ready.

Undyne held her hand out in front of her, as if signaling to her own spears. The spears began flying once more.

Her body was stuck standing where she was, but Jasper quickly discovered she could swivel and even turn small amounts in place. (Of course, this wasn't until after she'd taken a couple of hits, but she could handle it.) The spears came at her faster and faster. She quickly adjusted, however, and moved her spear around to block them and hit them away. Jasper only moved faster with Undyne's magic. She certainly preferred an offensive approach, but that didn't mean she couldn't do defense. She could handle this.

After some time of this, it stopped. Undyne waved her spears away and released Jasper from her green magic. "Alright, you can dodge and you can block. No point in doing more of that." She grinned, summoning a spear into her hands. "Now give me everything you've got."

Jasper smiled. She could move again, she still had one of Undyne's spears gripped in her hand, and she still had her own weapon to use as well. It was finally time to show what she could really do.

She took the first move. With her free hand, she wound up her fist for a punch and rushed at Undyne. Undyne jumped back, and with no target in front of her, Jasper's fist met with the ground instead. She couldn't stay there, though, she had to get up and move fast. Undyne had wasted no time in taking advantage of this window, and had launched a few spears that Jasper avoided with ease. Running at Undyne once again, Jasper swung with the spear this time. Rather than dodge again, Undyne blocked with her own spear. For a couple of minutes, they both traded blows with their spears.

As they fought, Jasper thought she could see something around Undyne. Something gray, and barely visible... it almost looked like a shape that she would later learn, from Asriel, was called a heart, but upside-down. She kept looking at it, trying to make it out and figure out if it was really there. It was distracting. So distracting, in fact, that she almost let Undyne get a hit in because of it. After that, she tried not to pay much attention to it.

Eventually, Jasper ended that by knocking away Undyne's spear. She summoned her helmet and attempted to headbutt Undyne in the face, but she missed. Undyne rolled away and summoned another spear into her hands. She swung at Jasper's feet, trying to knock her over. The attack connected, but not with enough force for Jasper to fall. Jasper tried to kick her, but Undyne rolled away once more.

And it went on.

The fight continued for some time. Ever once in awhile, one of them would gain the upper hand, before the other struck back. Overall, it seemed to be somewhat even. Once Jasper overpowered Undyne for the last time, Undyne stood up and got rid of both of the spears.

"Alright, I think that's enough for today," she told Jasper.

"Really?" Jasper broke into a stretch, a frown on her face. "I could keep going you know."

"So could I, but I've seen enough." Undyne flashed a toothy smile. "You're way better than I expected."

"Heh, I could say the same for you. I'm impressed."

"So, to thank you for such a great training session..." Undyne's pause was merely for dramatic effect. "...I'm gonna make you an honorary member of the Royal Guard!"

"The Royal Guard?" Jasper blinked. "Really?"

Undyne laughed. "Absolutely. I'd be a bonehead not to. Of course, it's honorary so it's pretty much all just in name. This isn't your place to protect, and I wouldn't force that on you. But if you _do_ want to help out, we could definitely use it. You're honestly a better fighter than most of the Guard."

"Are you kidding?" Jasper asked. "I've been itching for excitement since I woke up down here. There's no way I'm gonna pass this up, I'll definitely work with you guys."

"Great! You'll get tomorrow's assignment in the morning, then. For now, you and Asriel should go home and rest, I think. I'll be giving orders and all, but...really, you don't have to do everything I say."

* * *

Later on, Asriel and Jasper made it back to their own house. It was time for dinner by this point. The Dreemurrs started eating almost immediately, and had a nice and pleasant meal together. Jasper, of course, passed on it once again. She didn't have any interest in trying food, and preferred to stay on the couch she'd been using to rest.

After dinner was over, Asriel was sitting on the floor by Jasper's couch, coloring. She looked down at him, frowning.

"'Coloring' again?" she asked.

"Uh huh!" He grinned, pausing to look up at her. "Do you want to color?"

"No thanks, not interested," she responded. Though, she said that, but it wasn't entirely true. She wasn't interested in coloring herself, but she _was_ interested in what he was coloring. "What're you drawing, kid?"

A second later, the paper he was drawing on was an inch from her face. Asriel was beaming. "It's our family!" he told her. He pointed at the two purple blobs, which were fairly big. "That's Mom and Dad!" His hand shifted to point at a small green blob. "That's me." Once again, his hand moved to point at the last blob. This one was orange, and the tallest one. "And that's you!"

"I still don't think that- wait." Jasper blinked, squinting at the paper. "Me? You drew me there?"

"Yeah!" Asriel pulled the paper away. "Of course. You're part of the family too, Jasper!"

She snorted. "Yeah, right. I'm a stranger your parents let stay on your couch out of pity. I'm not even a monster like you three. I'm not part of your 'family' thing."

"No, you are," he insisted. "You're family as long as you want to stay here. We care about you. You can ask Mom and Dad, they'll say the same thing."

"Whatever, kid."

* * *

 **Well, this is probably going to be the worst chapter in the whole thing, it's going to be one of the shorter ones, but at the very least it's over. We can only go up from here.**

 **Next chapter, Jasper'll get to meet someone new! If you pay close attention to Undyne, she'll drop a hint for you.**

 **Update: If you're seeing this, I'm super sorry, this story's going on a short break. Doesn't mean I won't work on it, just that it might not update for a bit. I was planning on updating Hardtale before getting to this anyway, but... I really need to get to the doctor and until I can I'm just barely functioning and I feel absolutely terrible. Hopefully it'll all get resolved soon and I can get back to this!**


	4. It's Showtime!

**It's been a long time, I know, and I'm sorry. I've been busy, I've been sick, I injured myself, I haven't been doing so hot and I took a break as a result. I had a note here explaining why for awhile (in the previous chapter), so I'll leave it up for a bit since it explains better. I'm back, we're almost halfway done, I hope you're excited because I am.**

 **I'm behind on the new Steven Universe episodes but I'm pretty sure Jasper showed up this week and stuff happened, so let me get this out of the way before someone asks. The ending for this story was planned out pretty much the same day I started writing this, and nothing that happens in the show after Super Watermelon Island is going to change it. I'm still going in with the same ending. It might change something minor in the next chapter, but that's pretty much it. That should save trouble for everyone involved, since I'm sure someone will be curious.**

 **And if one person's wondering, more are as well, so I want to say this, too. This story was mostly inspired by the altered Undertale opening images where people photoshopped Jasper in the fallen human's place. While many of the joke Jaspertale comics and such put Jasper in Frisk's place, this essentially sticks Jasper in where Chara would've fallen. No humans have fallen at this point. Chara's not at the Dreemurr home right now. Hopefully no one's been too confused by this... We are in fact in the year 201X!**

 **Without further ado, I hope capslock doesn't bother anyone's eyes too much, but it's only for this chapter, don't worry.**

* * *

"Jasper?" Asriel's eyes peeked over the arm of the couch, staring at Jasper's face. "Are you awake?"

"Been awake for hours," Jasper muttered, slowly sitting up. She didn't rest as much now as she did when she first fell Underground, but there wasn't anything else to do when the Dreemurrs all went to sleep. Unless she was planning a way to leave the Underground, it was her go-to activity for boredom. She yawned, turning to look bleary-eyed at him. "What's up?"

"Undyne's on the phone for you," he responded cheerily. "She wants to talk, but if you were still asleep she said she'd call back later."

Phone? Asriel was holding the rectangular device she'd seen his dad use before...was that what it was called? She took it from him and held it up to her ear. She was pretty sure that's how it worked. "Hello?"

"You're holding it upside down," Asriel informed her. He pointed up at the phone. "You're talking into the part that you listen from, and you're listening to the part you talk into."

Jasper nodded and adjusted it accordingly. "Hello?" she repeated.

"Jasper! There you are!" Undyne's voice on the other end was full of static. Jasper could hear her, but the audio wasn't the greatest quality, and there was no video or visual. This 'phone' was easily inferior to anything on Homeworld, but it worked at least. "I was beginning to think you were asleep after all."

"Me? No way," Jasper replied, a smirk on her face, even though Undyne couldn't see it. "I'm always ready for anything."

"Good." Undyne laughed, which came out heavily distorted on Jasper's end. "That's exactly what I want to hear, because if you're up for it, I've got your first assignment."

A few days had passed since Undyne and Jasper's training session. Asgore and Undyne had trained together since then, and she and Jasper had had a chance to talk. About future sparring opportunities, and future assignments. But they'd shot the breeze about whatever, too. What had began as mutual respect was beginning to develop into something more like...what was Asriel's word for it? Right. Friendship.

Making friends was the last thing Jasper had planned on doing here, and now she had...four? If 'family' counted as 'friends'. She still didn't really see them as family, though, and found 'friends' to be a more accurate description. She supposed it was all okay, in a weird way.

"Just say the word, captain," she said.

"Ah, cut the 'captain' crap. It sounds way too formal. Just call me Undyne. Hey, you wanted to learn more about the Underground, right?" Undyne redirected the conversation back on subject before Jasper could respond.

Jasper had no idea why Undyne wanted to cut the formalities, and was honestly surprised. She wasn't used to that. But if it was what Undyne wanted, she'd try her best to adjust. Not wanting to waste more time on an unwanted topic, she replied. "Right. If I'm stuck here, it's better I know as much as possible about it. Whether I'm defending this place or not, it'll put me at an advantage if anything happens."

"Yeah, I get it. And since you want to be active as an honorary Royal Guard, I think that'll help. Heck, I'm in charge, I'll _make_ it happen!" Undyne told her.

"Really? So, what are my orders?" This piqued her interested even more. Jasper was getting excited now, and her voice rose as her excitement grew.

"Alright, slow down! If you want to learn more about the Underground, then culture ties right in with that. And puzzles are an important part of it. They've started fading out of use, and I don't really care for that crap, so you won't learn a lot about them where you are. That's where your assignment comes in."

"Puzzles, huh?" Jasper mumbled, more to herself than Undyne. Culture? Puzzles? She wasn't sure about all that. She was a Quartz, after all. Quartzes were soldiers made for fighting, battle, and not much else. She was more than happy to follow the rules on that, and didn't step out of line. What Undyne was describing would fall under a more technical gem's territory. Peridot, maybe, but not her. This was what she wanted, but it sounded...boring, honestly, and her enthusiasm was quickly dropping to mild disappointment.

"Yeah!" If Undyne had noticed this, she didn't point it out. "With puzzles, it's better to get really hands-on, see them for yourself, and Snowdin's the place to go for puzzles. We recruited a new sentry recently, a monster named Papyrus. He loves puzzles, and takes care of most of the puzzle maintenance in the area. So your assignment, should you accept, is to go to Snowdin and help him out for the day. And while you're there, he'll tell you everything you'd ever want to learn about puzzles. Probably more, too, knowing him."

"...Okay." Jasper still wasn't convinced on this puzzle thing. It still sounded pretty dull, honestly. But even if she hadn't been looking for something like this, she wouldn't dream of questioning orders. Plus, it wasn't like she had anything better to do. Sitting around at the Dreemurr's home and doing nothing made her feel useless. She needed to do something. She just would've preferred sparring, or training, or something. The stuff she was made for.

Undyne laughed again. "I'm not big on puzzles, I know that feeling. But I get the feeling that you'll like them when you learn more about them. It's good to give them one chance, and hopefully you'll enjoy it, at least a little. But if you don't, I'll never ask you to deal with them again."

They continued to talk for a few more minutes. Having never been to Snowdin, Jasper had no idea how far away it was until Undyne told her. Thankfully, though, there was a solution to this. A ferry ran through most of the Underground that could get her to Snowdin much faster than on foot. Asriel could take her safely to the ferry, and this new sentry would be waiting at the stop in Snowdin. Since the ferry ran most of the day, she could take it on the way back as well.

Asriel, of course, would've loved to go to Snowdin with her. However, his mother deemed Snowdin too far away without herself or Asgore with them. And in any case, he'd been falling behind in his schoolwork since Jasper had arrived, and needed to catch up. Jasper didn't know what schoolwork was, but didn't care enough to ask at the moment. She caught the important part, that Asriel wouldn't be there.

It was strange, honestly. She'd grown used to travelling around with the kid, and hadn't really gone much of anywhere by herself. By now, it almost felt weird going without him, but she didn't need him to hold her hand all the time. She'd be perfectly fine.

She would just...miss him, she supposed. At least, he said he would miss her, and she assumed what she felt was the same.

But he was still able to walk her to the ferry. The trip there was short, and mostly filled up with a fretting Asriel. Jasper frustratedly assured him she would be fine. She was more than capable of taking care of herself. Every once in awhile a situation like this would occur, usually with Asriel, that would test Jasper's patience. She was getting used to it and handling it better, but it was still difficult for her. Thankfully, Asriel never seemed to notice. If he did, he didn't seem to mind.

In due time, they got to the ferry. Asriel and Jasper said their goodbyes, and Jasper boarded the ferry. Asriel stayed and watched her go off, only going back home when she was out of sight.

"Tra la la." Jasper didn't notice the monster in the front of the boat until they started singing. She supposed they must be driving the boat, but all they were doing was sitting there. Well... She'd seen Toriel use fire magic to cook before, and Asgore had used it to train, so maybe this monster could use magic involving water, or maybe wood, to drive the boat down.

"Beware the one who comes from the other world... Tra la la," they sang.

...Was that supposed to refer to her? Jasper felt a chill. She never truly felt like the Underground was home or anything. She was more of an outsider than anything. But she hadn't been this aware of how out of place she was since she first woke up down here. Sure, she'd been to other planets with beings unlike her, but she never really...spent time with them before, got to know them and learn about it. All in all, it was a feeling she didn't like, and wanted to get rid of immediately.

And surely she'd have that chance soon. The ferry arrived safely at Snowdin.

"GREETINGS!" A monster Jasper could not find the words to describe was waiting, and waving, at the ferry stop. (Later, she'd learn this monster was something called a skeleton. The term only confused her more.) As she stepped out of the ferry, the monster approached her. "YOU MUST BE JASPER. I'M PAPYRUS. UNDYNE ALREADY CALLED ME."

"She did, huh?" Jasper was a loss for words. Not from surprise, since she had figured Papyrus would know she was coming. She'd be surprised if he hadn't. No, she was just...taken aback, almost. This monster was incredibly friendly, talkative, and loud. Moreso than Asriel in all of those areas, though she wouldn't use 'loud' as a descriptor for Asriel most of the time. All in all, her first impression of Papyrus from just a few seconds of knowing him was that he was obnoxious, and she didn't think she liked him. She was dreading this mission more.

"INDEED, SHE DID! UNDYNE TOLD ME EVERYTHING! AND SHE PICKED THE RIGHT SKELETON FOR THE JOB!" Papyrus told her. "WOWIE...IT'S VERY EXCITING TO HAVE HELP RECALIBRATING PUZZLES. AND I LOVE TELLING OTHERS ABOUT THE JOYS OF PUZZLES! YOU MUST BE AS EXCITED AS I AM!" He beamed at her.

Jasper stared blankly at him, radiating dismay if anything. If Papyrus noticed, he paid this no mind. Instead he simply started to lead her to the puzzles, chatting the whole way.

Compared to most monsters Jasper had met, Papyrus was short. This didn't make him a short monster. The comparison was simply misleading, since most monsters Jasper had met were rather tall. She'd seen many shorter monsters in passing, so she knew this initial thought wasn't entirely accurate. He was around the same height as Undyne, if not a bit shorter. Jasper was definitely taller than him, at the very least. He also seemed quite young, one of the youngest monster she'd probably met, other than Asriel. And he was outgoing. She didn't even need to say a word, because he filled up what would otherwise be silence quite easily. Discussing his favorite puzzles, family, friends (which he assured her he had plenty of), and anything else he could think of.

Supposedly, he had a brother named Sans, who was busy working elsewhere and wouldn't return home for awhile. If he was anything like Papyrus, Jasper almost hoped she wouldn't get to meet him.

Soon enough, the two reached an area outside of town. The snow was arranged strangely here, almost like tiles...until Jasper looked more closely, and realized it actually was tiles and not snow at all. A machine sat off to the side, which she paid no attention to, because she didn't care about machines at all.

"HERE WE ARE!" Papyrus stopped as they approached the maze, causing Jasper to stop as well. This was the part where she might actually learn something useful. "THIS IS THE TILE MAZE. IT'S...A NEWER PUZZLE, MADE BY A SCIENTIST NAMED DOCTOR ALPHYS. I DON'T THINK WE'LL HAVE TO DO MUCH MAINTENANCE HERE, BUT WE SHOULD STILL TEST IT."

"Alright..." Jasper scanned the puzzle over once more, still not quite sure what this was. "So what do we do?"

"STAND ON THE OTHER SIDE," Papyrus told her, gesturing towards the area he was referring to. Once she got there, he continued. "I WILL TURN ON THE MACHINE, ACTIVATING THE PUZZLE. EACH OF THE TILES WILL TURN INTO DIFFERENT COLORS WITH DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS. BUT YOU WON'T NEED TO SOLVE IT. THE TILES THEMSELVES SHOULD BE FINE, WE JUST NEED TO MAKE SURE EACH COLOR WORKS CORRECTLY. SO ALL YOU HAVE TO IS STEP ON THE TILES I TELL YOU TO. IT SHOULDN'T TAKE LONG."

She nodded. That was simple enough, she could do that with no problems. Silently, she stood still as he flipped on the machine. The puzzle whirred into life, and the tiles each flashed different colors rapidly until settling, each on different and random colors. That done, Papyrus flashed her a smile.

"FIRST, STEP ON A RED TILE," he said.

She tried to do this, but found herself unable. Maybe this was harder than she thought. Was she somehow...walking wrong? Or was the puzzle messed up? "I can't," she informed him.

"GOOD, WE'RE OFF TO A GOOD START!" He clapped his hands together once. "RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE. YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO WALK ON THEM. NEXT IS A PINK TILE."

Both of her feet moved easily onto the nearest pink tile. She paused. "Nothing happened, but I could step on it."

"GREAT! PINK TILES DON'T DO ANYTHING."

They went on like this for a few minutes, testing every color, and many color combinations. The only thing they didn't check was going through a blue tile that was next to a yellow tile. According to Papyrus, you shouldn't be able to step through a blue tile in that situation, but it would shock if someone tried, and he didn't seem to want Jasper to, even if it was relatively harmless. Honestly, Jasper didn't want to be shocked at all, so she was perfectly fine with this decision.

"OKAY, THAT'S FINISHED!" Papyrus shut off the machine. "EVERY TILE WORKED EXCEPT FOR THE GREEN TILES. BUT WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO FIX IT, SO WE'RE DONE HERE. I'LL JUST LET UNDYNE KNOW IN MY DAILY REPORT LATER. ON TO THE NEXT PUZZLE!"

Together, they walked further away from town. Papyrus chattered the entire way, while Jasper asked a few questions here and there, but remained silent otherwise. The more time she spent here, the less she liked it. She'd seen a puzzle firsthand, and that was great and all, but she still didn't know anything about them. Not only that, but the more Papyrus talked, the more he got on her nerves. He was so...cheerful, naive, outgoing, oblivious. He'd mentioned his ambitions to be a member of the Royal Guard several times, but she could tell from just meeting him he'd never last in real combat. He'd never make it in a war.

This whole thing was beginning to feel like a big waste of time. If puzzles really were that important, couldn't someone else tell her about them?

They quickly reached the next puzzle. Panels with symbols on them littered the ground, and according to Papyrus, this puzzle was solved by walking over each panel exactly once and then hitting a switch. This puzzle was incredibly easy to solve, and took Jasper maybe a few minutes at most. Once she was finished, Papyrus applauded her.

"YOU SOLVED IT SO QUICKLY! YOU'RE QUITE GOOD AT THIS. BUT THIS PUZZLE SEEMS TO BE WORKING PERFECTLY FINE," he observed. "SO OUR WORK HERE IS DONE AS WELL."

"I'm not so sure." Jasper crossed her arms, glaring down at the puzzle. "It works fine, but it's way too easy. I doubt you want whoever these are for to get past them too fast. We ought to make it harder."

"HMM..." Papyrus turned his gaze onto the puzzle as well. There really wasn't any difficulty in this puzzle. Nothing prevented anyone from stepping on any panel at any time, so it wasn't...solving the puzzle, as much as it was just passing through. "I SUPPOSE YOU'RE RIGHT. WE COULD MAKE THIS MORE DIFFICULT. PERHAPS WE COULD ADD SNOW WALLS, AND MAKE IT SOME SORT OF MAZE, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT."

Was every puzzle in Snowdin a maze? Whatever, it didn't matter. A maze was harder than the puzzle was as it was, so she agreed. And besides, Jasper was no puzzle expert, so it wasn't like she had any ideas on how to make it better herself. So the two got to work, forming large snow walls everywhere around it. They would have to leave the puzzle solvable, of course, but at least this could pose some challenge.

"...Papyrus." They worked in silence, complete silence for the first time since Jasper had arrived, for some time before she spoke up.

"YES?" Papyrus asked.

"So, puzzles are...cool, and all." She was choosing her words carefully. It seemed impossible to upset Papyrus, but it would be best to try to appeal to his interests if she was asking for information. She wanted to leave the impression she liked puzzles, at least, and that that was why she wanted to learn more. Papyrus used the word 'cool' a lot, especially describing himself. It must have some positive meaning. "But what's the point? I mean, why are they here? What do they do?" She frowned. "I can't figure it out. It doesn't make sense."

"OH, RIGHT." Papyrus rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I WAS SUPPOSED TO TELL YOU ABOUT ALL THAT, WASN'T I? I NEARLY FORGOT, BUT LIKE THEY SAY, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!" He grinned. "WORRY NOT! I WILL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT PUZZLES, AND HOPEFULLY ALLEVIATE THE CONFUSION YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW."

Their work did not stop for the explanation. They kept building up the snow as Papyrus talked and Jasper listened. For once, she was completely interested.

"PUZZLES ARE...HM." He frowned as he smoothed out a section of a snow wall. "YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BARRIER, RIGHT? THE BARRIER TRAPPING ALL MONSTERS UNDERGROUND?"

Jasper nodded. She was very familiar with that barrier, having come face to face with it and being unable to go through.

"MONSTERS AREN'T DOWN HERE BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE. THE HUMANS PUT THAT BARRIER UP LONG AGO TO SEAL US DOWN HERE. MOST OF US HAVE NEVER SEEN REAL STARS, AND CAN ONLY DREAM OF FEELING THE SUN ON OUR SKIN," Papyrus explained.

She looked away for a moment, busying herself in her work. The barrier trapping them all down here...that brought back unpleasant memories.

"ANYONE CAN ENTER, BUT ONLY SOMEONE WITH A POWERFUL SOUL CAN ESCAPE. NO MONSTER'S SOUL IS CLOSE TO POWERFUL ENOUGH, SO WE MAKE DO DOWN HERE," he went on. "AND SINCE ANYONE CAN ENTER, WE HAVE TO BE PREPARED FOR THE POSSIBILITY THAT A HUMAN COULD ARRIVE. IT HASN'T HAPPENED YET, BUT IT COULD, AND THAT'S WHAT THE PUZZLES ARE FOR."

A counter-measure for a human attack, from the sounds of it. Interesting.

"PUZZLES ARE...HOW DID THAT BOOK PUT IT? ANCIENT FUSIONS BETWEEN DIVERSIONS AND DOORKEYS. THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO SLOW HUMANS DOWN, IF THEY CAN'T STOP THEM COMPLETELY. MOST MONSTERS KNOW THE SOLUTIONS, SO WE CAN GO BACK AND FORTH FREELY. IN SOME PARTS OF THE UNDERGROUND, THEY'RE STARTING TO FADE OUT OF USE, BUT PUZZLES ARE IMPORTANT! I REFUSE TO ABANDON THEM, EVEN IF ALMOST EVERYONE ELSE HAS. AFTER ALL, IF A HUMAN FALLS DOWN HERE, WE NEED TO BE PREPARED!"

Interesting indeed. "That's...way cooler than I thought," Jasper admitted. "But why put all that work into slowing them down? Why not just fight them directly?" That would be the honorable way to do things, really. And Undyne at least had lead her to believe that monsters were honorable beings.

"THAT'S WHAT UNDYNE THINKS, TOO. AND SHE'S VERY STRONG SO IT MAY WORK FOR HER," Papyrus replied. "AND OF COURSE, MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL GUARD TRAIN TO BE ABLE TO FIGHT HUMANS, AND AS A SENTRY, I DO AS WELL! BUT TRUTHFULLY, IT MIGHT NOT BE THE BEST METHOD." He rubbed the back of his head once more. "I'VE NEVER SEEN A HUMAN MYSELF, BUT EVERYONE SAYS THEY HAVE POWERFUL SOULS. SO POWERFUL THAT ONE HUMAN ALONE WOULD HAVE A MORE POWERFUL SOUL THAN EVERY MONSTER'S SOUL COMBINED. THAT'S HOW THEY WERE ABLE TO TRAP US DOWN HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. JUST ONE MONSTER, OR EVEN A FEW OF US WORKING TOGETHER, MIGHT NOT BE ENOUGH TO STOP EVEN ONE HUMAN BY THEIRSELF. IN MY OPINION, IT'S BETTER TO SLOW THEM DOWN WITH PUZZLES, AND TRY TO CAPTURE THEM THAT WAY."

He coughed. "BUT, UM, DON'T TELL UNDYNE I SAID THAT! SHE'D BE FURIOUS. AND THAT DOESN'T MEAN I'M NOT PREPARED TO FIGHT A HUMAN. I AM. I'M JUST...NOT SURE IT'S THE BEST APPROACH, IS ALL."

Jasper didn't quite believe that last part. As much as he wanted to believe it, she doubted he could take on another monster, let alone a human, if humans were as powerful as he said. But what he said made sense. If monsters truly were weaker than humans, then monsters needed to adapt to their situation. It may not be the most honorable way to go about it, but there worse methods. These puzzles were more useful than she thought.

She had to admit, it piqued her interest. In puzzles, of course. And in monsters, absolutely. But it got her interested in humans as well. She had no idea they were supposed to be so strong. Though gems were much stronger, of course, but perhaps there was more to humans than she had first believed. It was all a lot to dwell on, and she had plenty of time to do so. She probably wasn't going to be able to leave any time soon anyway, much as she hated to admit it.

With Jasper much more enthusiastic now, the two continued on. Once the snow walls were finished, more puzzles were tested, fixed, and recalibrated. Eventually, they reached the end of the Snowdin Forest and had to turn pack. Papyrus spoke more about puzzles the entire time, and Jasper paid closer attention than she had at first. It wasn't long before they got back to Snowdin Town once again.

Her opinion of Papyrus was largely the same. He wasn't material to be a soldier, and he really needed to face reality. She definitely wasn't his biggest fan, or even close. But she had to respect his love for puzzles, just a little. He truly put everything into taking care of them.

"AND HERE WE ARE! BACK IN SNOWDIN TOWN," he announced as they got back. "UNFORTUNATELY, IT'S TIME FOR MY DAILY REPORT WITH UNDYNE. YOU DON'T NEED TO REPORT ANYTHING, SO THERE'S NO NEED FOR YOU TO GO TO WATERFALL. BUT FORTUNATELY, THERE IS A SOLUTION! MY BROTHER SHOULD BE DONE WITH WORK ANY MINUTE NOW."

He was true to his word. Jasper blinked, and before she knew it another monster (a skeleton monster, as she would later learn) was standing in front of a house at the edge of town. This turned out to be Papyrus' brother.

"THERE HE IS!" Papyus grinned, dashing towards him. Jasper followed him closely. "WHILE I GIVE MY REPORT TO UNDYNE, YOU CAN HANG OUT WITH MY BROTHER! HE'S NOT AS COOL AS ME, BUT I'M SURE YOU CAN LEARN A LOT FROM HIM, TOO. HAVE FUN! NYEH HEH HEH!"

"wait, what?" his brother asked.

Before she could get a word in, Papyrus had left her with his brother and was dashing off towards Waterfall.

Jasper stared down at the short monster in front of her. He was dressed lazily, in clothes that were at least clean but far from professional or stylish. He was a bit taller than Asriel, but shorter than most other monsters, and much shorter than her. He smiled nervously at her, scratching at a cheekbone with one of his fingers.

"heya. the name's sans." He stared up at her for a moment, before walking towards the door to the house. "uh, you can come in, i guess."

Well, Sans seemed less obnoxious than Papyrus, at least.

* * *

 **I'll try my best not to take so long next time. I don't think I'll be as busy now, I'm less injured than I was and I'm no longer sick, but I'm still having issues related to why I put off updating this in the first place, so we'll see. And it'll help if the next chapter isn't this long. 4,000 words, gosh.**

 **I don't think there's any doubt what'll be going on in the next chapter.**


	5. Premonition

**welcome to the newest chapter of jaspertale, where a new character pops up in almost every chapter.**

 **it's really hot. i've been pretty busy and pretty tired, sorry about that. i can't really say how good this is because i'm too busy melting, sorry, but take it anyway. necessary things happen, featuring sans**

 **in a different story, i just wrote a different conversation with a different sans, which was interesting. just exploring the differences and all between this sans, who's gone through no resets, that other sans, who's gone through a few resets, and sans prime, still experiencing resets to this day. it was fun. but this story has nothing to do with resets anyway. this story's just about food and sleeping.**

* * *

Sans nodded to the couch near the house's entrance. "take a seat."

Jasper's gaze swept over the couch. It was something that was somewhat familiar in an unfamiliar place. It was similar to the one at the Dreemurr's home, at least in shape and size. She had to concede, though, that she knew little about Earth couches, and this may just be a shared standard for them all. Despite the similarity, it seemed strange and unknown. It was an inviting object in a foreign place, with the only other person here a stranger. For all she knew, it could be a trap. Should she really sit there?

"well, are ya gonna sit or not?" Sans asked.

...Hmm. Jasper trusted Undyne. Undyne seemed to trust Papyrus. And Papyrus trusted Sans. She supposed it would be safe, but she'd still keep her guard up, just in case. Anything could happen. She sat down, not taking her eyes off the couch and ready to jump up at a moment's notice.

"heh. there ya go. it doesn't bite, i promise." He smiled at her. "wait right there, i'll be in the other room if you eed me."

With a wink, he stepped into the other room. From her spot on the couch, she could soon hear things clanging and moving around. They weren't the most pleasant sounds, but she could place them. He was...preparing a meal? Eating must be common among all monsters, then.

She brought her attention back to the matter at hand. So far, she was fine. Nothing had happened. In that case, the couch probably wasn't a threat. Relieved in that knowledge, Jasper allowed herself to relax.

Not too much later, Sans returned with two plates in hand. Each had food on it, something that Jasper couldn't identify, but was known as a grilled cheese sandwich. He kept one for himself and handed her the other one. Hesitantly, she took it.

"so," he mumbled through a mouthful of sandwich. "you're that...honorary royal guard, or whatever, right? the one that's supposed to help out pap today?"

"Right." He seemed to be waiting for something more. Whatever he wanted, she had no idea. She said nothing else.

"so." He rubbed the back of his neck. "i'm really bad with names. what's yours, again?"

"Jasper," she replied curtly.

"right. i'm sans. nice to meet ya." He held out his hand. She didn't know what this meant, so she just stared at it. After a minute, his hand fell, and he took another bite of grilled cheese. "are you the one from new home? staying with the royal family?"

"I'm staying with them, but it's not where I'm from." Wow, this guy sure liked to ask questions. "How did you know?" It'd make sense if Undyne had told these monsters, but if she hadn't, she had to admit that she was a bit curious.

"word travels fast. it's small down here, and not much really happens. so it's become common knowledge that someone's staying at the castle," he responded. "but it's not just that. i've never seen another monster like you. you're unique. i'd be more surprised if it wasn't you."

So not only was he curious, he was observant. Interesting. But once she heard the word unique, she had to bite down a laugh "That last part's all wrong," she informed him. "I'm not unique. I'm not a monster at all."

"well, you're definitely not a human." He bit his grilled cheese thoughtfully, his eyes lighting up. "so you're not a monster or a human. what does that make you, then? what kind of soul do you have?"

"I'm a Gem." The curiosity in his eyes put her off a bit. She didn't like it. "And I don't know what a soul is. If I did, I probably wouldn't tell you, depending on what that meant." Blunt, but honest at least.

"eh, that's fair." Sans shrugged. "doesn't matter, i can find out myself."

Before Jasper had a chance to ask what that meant, a blue flame glowed in his hand. A bright blue light lit up in her face, making her close her eyes. She opened them again and realized it was her nose glowing. Just like that training session with Undyne. Only, this time the light was blue instead of green. It stopped after a moment.

"huh." Sans frowned at her. "so, your name's jaspere. you're a gem, not a human, not a monster. and your soul is...your nose. man, if things were different i'd love to study you. or observe you, at least. find out more."

She grimaced. "I'd rather not."

He took another bite of his sandwich and glanced down at her plate. It was untouched. "hey, are you gonna eat that?"

Jasper considered his question and the grilled cheese for a minute. She shrugged. "I don't know if I can."

"of course you can." He blinked. "what makes you think that?"

"...I've never eaten before," she told him truthfully.

"hey, it's easy. it's monster food, anyone can eat it. it turns directly into energy when you eat it, fast and easy," he explained. "nothing else required. you'll feel better if you do. it'll help prepare ya for anything you do."

Jasper looked at her grilled cheese again. Could she really eat this? Everyone else seemed to think so. And it sounded to her like she could, too. Directly into energy, huh? That could be good for her, but she couldn't be sure. In any case, she didn't honestly trust Sans enough to eat his food.

"No thanks, I'm, uh..." What did Asriel call it again? "Not hungry." That was it.

"suit yourself," he replied, finishing his sandwich. "doesn't matter, anyway. pap'll be back soon, and i'm sure you'll have loads to do when he does. you might not have time to eat."

She nodded. That worked for her.

* * *

"It's, uh, dinnertime." Asriel turned to look at the table, before turning back towards Jasper again. "We're gonna eat. Do you want anything?" Getting Jasper to eat had long been a futile struggle, but the kid was polite to a fault. No matter how many times she refused, he insisted it'd be rude not to ask. And he did, every single day. He never seemed to expect a different response, either, and her refusals never noticeably bothered him. So he kept asking, and usually she always said no.

This time, however, she hesitated. Her mind had floated back to a conversation from earlier, about how anyone should be able to eat monster food. She thought it over, then shrugged.

"Sure, why not," she told him. "I'll try whatever you've got."

He was stunned for a moment, staring at her, until his mouth began to grow into a huge grin. "Great! We're having pie! Usually Mom makes snail pie, but today it's even better! She made butterscotch cinnamon pie, everyone's favorite!"

Asriel dragged her to the table, and she sat down next to him. Everyone got a slice of pie and began to eat. Jasper watched everyone else eat first, before facing her own pie. Unsure if she should have gone through with this, she took a small bite.

It...wasn't bad. It was the best thing she'd ever eaten. Though, by that definition, it was also the worst thing she'd ever eaten, too. Eating didn't turn out to be her favorite thing in the world, but she did like it. And by the time she was done with her slice, she felt better, too. Energized, fatigue from the trip to Snowdin gone. That sack of bones had been right after all, imagine that.

Her slice gone before anyone else had finished, Jasper cut herself a second piece.

"Hey, Asriel?"

The question had been on her mind, ever since Papyrus had mentioned it. And Jasper knew that Asriel was the best place to go for answers. He seemed to know just about anything in the Underground she could think to ask. Surely, he'd know this, too. She wouldn't trust anyone less for information.

"Yeah?" he asked, smiling at her. The kid was still beaming over the fact that she was actually eating.

"...What's a brother?"

* * *

"You're part of the family too, Jasper!"

Asriel stood in front of her. There was a smile on his face. Her helmet formed, and she ran. After the first step, he disappeared, and she found herself in Waterfall.

Lapis Lazuli stood nearby. An echo flower was nearby, saying something Jasper couldn't quite hear. Lapis was staring into the water.

"...Lapis?" Jasper asked. "When did _you_ get here?"

"I'm done being everyone's prisoner," Lapis muttered. She looked sharply up at Jasper, anger in her eyes. "Now you're my prisoner, and I'm never letting you go."

The echo flower echoed once more, but Jasper still couldn't hear it.

Lapis lifted her hand, and the water raised at her call. It formed into chains, which wrapped around Jasper before she could react. The chains dragged her away. Away from Lapis, away from Waterfall.

They took her all the way to Hotland. Upon arriving, the chains evaporated in the heat. Something snorted behind her, and she turned to see Peridot. Peridot said something, but Jasper couldn't hear it over the echoes of echo flowers, none of which she could understand. She got up. Peridot vanished.

Jasper walked down the empty streets of New Home. She asked herself aloud what she was going to do. There was no response, other than the echoes of echo flowers. But somebody came.

"Jasper? Is that you?"

She turned around, and saw the last Gem she wanted to see running towards her. Rose Quartz, choosing to take this weak, pathetic, earthling form. For not the first time, she wondered why Rose was like this. What had happened after the Rebellion?

"Rose," she grumbled. How dare she show up now? Just when things were starting to look up under this giant rock? She didn't even want to know how Rose got here, or why. She didn't care. She just wanted her gone. "What do you want?"

"I've been worried about you! Ever since you fell, I had no idea where you went or if you were okay- You are okay, right?"

Pity? They were enemies, and she refused to be treated like anything else. "Yeah, now I am." Her answer came with a sneer. "No thanks to you and your Crystal Gems. If I were alone down here, I'd be in much worse shape." If Rose was putting on this act of caring, she'd take advantage. Twist the knife as much as possible. It was all she could do.

"That's good to hear." Rose looked genuinely relieved, which frustrated her. Did Rose really care? Well, she was trapped on this planet, and had nowhere to go. This couldn't be one of Rose's recruitment tactics. There was no way she'd join that losing battle. Rose looked around, as if trying to get a feel for the place. Different areas flashed around them; New Home, Hotland, Waterfall, the garbage dump. Strain appeared on Rose's face, obvious from where Jasper stood. "Where are we?" Rose asked. "Is this where you ended up?"

This was frustrating Jasper more by the second. Rose must think very little of her, to see her as not an enemy, but someone needing help. Was it because she was trapped? Not just underground, but on this planet? If she had her way, she'd have been back to Homeworld long ago. And Rose was so small and weak now; how dare Rose think so little of her.

Her frustration wasn't helped by those obnoxious flowers. She could still hear them all the way out here, calling. She still couldn't understand them. If they couldn't make any sense, they needed to shut up.

"Yeah. Deep underground, after you all dumped me here," she snarled. They were at the barrier. Jasper crossed her arms. "After you all so kindly freed me of that abomination, you threw me down here with no way out. Even if I could, I have no way back to Homeworld."

"No, no, it's not like that at all!" Rose insisted. "You fell in a crack made by the Cluster. We tried to save you, but we couldn't in time." She doubted that. More likely that they didn't want to save her at all. Not that she wanted them to save her, either. It was a zero win situation. "I'm sorry. Really. I've been worried about you, this is the first sign I've seen about where you are."

The echoes grew louder around her. They drowned out almost everything else besides the conversation, but she still couldn't figure out what the flowers were saying.

"Don't waste your pity," Jasper retorted. "I didn't ask you to help me. I'd rather be stuck down here than be your prisoner."

"It's not like that!" Rose repeated. "We just want to help you!" She doubted that even more. Rose frowned, mulling the previous statement. "Well, maybe not all of us. But _I_ want to help you. You don't have to fight us, Jasper. We can work together."

"Unlike some Gems, I am loyal to my homeworld," she said. "And I already said, I don't want your help."

"But...you can't stay stuck down there." More pity. Was this all Rose was good for now? "I'll find you. Now that I know what happened to you, I'll look. And I won't stop until I find you."

"No!" Jasper snarled. "Stay away from me! I'll find my own way out, and then I'll beat you into the ground!"

"JASPER!" the flowers shouted.

* * *

She opened her eyes. Asriel stood over her, concern apparent on his face.

"Jasper, are you okay?" he asked. "You looked like you were having a really bad dream." She had no idea what that meant. He must've gathered that, and went on. "Dreams are like...somthing that happens in your head, when you are asleep. But it's not real things, it's made up."

Not real, huh? Then Rose wasn't really here. "I guess I was," she mumbled. "But I'm fine."

"Good." Asriel smiled. "I'm glad you woke up from it, then."

If that's what dreams were, she'd had them before. But this was definitely the worst one she'd had.

* * *

 **they should call it trap and pity planet because it's where you go to be trapped and pitied.**

 **So, uh, before Jasper came back to the show, I was totally in the group of people expecting her to get a redemption arc. Maybe not right away, but at some point. And the Summer of Steven drove through, Jasper tried to build her own army, and she got poofed. Which I don't think is a bad thing. It's just not what I expected, which is nice! I like things going differently than I thought. And she could still be redeemed later on, who knows? But it's cool, and makes this story a lot more exciting to write! Just keep in mind that all these episodes will have minimal impact on the story, and as I've said, it's still ending the way I planned.**

 **Also, just in case anyone's confused, uh. I do my best to refer to everyone in this story to how Jasper knows them. It was more clear early on with the Dreemurrs and Undyne, in both cases before Jasper was introduced. But this still applies here, with Steven. That is Steven, but Jasper still refers to him as Rose Quartz, so I will refer to him as such.**

 **I'm very excited for the next chapter! I definitely like this part of the story more than I like the beginning bits. Things are about to get pretty eventful, so I hope I can update again soon!**


	6. Another Medium

**I would've done this sooner but school's kicking my butt in the worst ways and I sucked myself into Danganronpa and I've just been super tired. I haven't had a chance to just like sit in my room for a few minutes in twelve hours. This semester is ridiculous and I'm pretty sure I'm going to drop one of my classes again before I have a mental breakdown, like I did last time. But whatever, man. You didn't ask for my life story. Sorry. Sorry this took so long. I know how long this is taking has definitely disinterested people, and I cannot apologize enough, but I simply haven't had time. If I had, this would've come much sooner, since it only took like two days to write most of this. Anyway, here's some Jasper for the soul.**

* * *

She could smell it in the air. This was the perfect day for a training session.

Jasper still wasn't very comfortable with primitive Earth technology, so she had Asriel call Undyne for her. Undyne was all for it; by the time Jasper arrived, she would be free. Toriel made Asriel stay behind once again for his 'schoolwork', but this was no issue. Jasper was more than capable going to Waterfall by herself. And so she did, the trip not taking much time at all.

Toriel had taught her that it was polite to knock on the doors of homes that weren't hers. She'd also taught her it was important to be polite. (Much to her dismay, she always knocked on every door in the Dreemurr home as well; she was far from considering it her home.) Remembering this, she knocked, and waited. Waiting was the next step, and also important.

A voice told Jasper to come in, so she did so. Undyne was expecting her, but didn't seem to be waiting for her as she usually would, which Jasper found odd, but decided not to really dwell on it. Once she turned her thoughts from this, however, she was faced with an interesting sight.

Undyne was sitting at a large, black object. The object was making noise, similar to the singing the Crystal Gems had done when Jasper first arrived on the garbage planet. Next to Undyne was another monster, one that looked like the weird Earth-fish she'd seen in the ocean, who was watching the black object closely. As Jasper slowly approached them, she noticed that Undyne was moving her hands on the black object, that she was making it make the noises.

It must be an Earth thing.

"Hey, Jasper!" Undyne paused to greet her. "Sorry, Shyren's piano lesson is running a little over. We can train as soon as I'm finished."

"Piano?" Jasper asked, glancing over the black object. Was that what it was called?

"Yeah! Come on, don't tell me you've never seen a piano before," Undyne said. "You have to have music out wherever you're from!"

"Well...we do." Jasper shrugged. "But most of us had nothing to do with it, so we didn't know anything about it."

Undyne gestured her closer. "Nothing, huh? Well, we're gonna have to fix that." She grinned. "Today's training session's being replaced with a piano session. I'm gonna teach you everything you need to know about music."

"...Alright."

Undyne gestured once more, and Jasper sat down next to her on the piano bench, on the other side of the other monster...Shyren. Undyne flashed a smile at Jasper and replaced her hands on the piano.

"Music's all about passion," she said. "Like, you know how you feel when something great happens? Or something frustrates you? Or you're getting really into something? It's like, you take those intense feelings, and you turn it into something you can hear. It's an intense battle between the different emotions in you. And sometimes it draws certain ones out, too."

"...Uh-huh."

"Here, let me show you."

Undyne cracked her knuckles, and began to play the piano. The music coming from it was light, bouncy, quiet, and joyful. This went on for at least five minutes, before it ended quietly and suddenly. She turned towards Jasper.

"So, what do you think?"

"Honestly? ...Seems like a waste of time."

And it was true. Jasper didn't want to be anything but honest with someone who she saw as a superior officer. (Even if she was also a friend?) And that trumped being "nice", or however Toriel said she should act. She would say how she truly felt. And she truly felt this whole thing was pointless.

"'Waste of time', huh?" Undyne wasn't mad as her hands hovered over the keys. All she was looking for was confirmation, explanation. Just as Jasper wanted to be honest, Undyne wanted her to be honest as well. She was searching for the truth.

Jasper nodded. "Right. It's just... I'm supposed to be a fighter. And anything else that I do that isn't fighting just feels...pointless. Worthless. Wrong. Even just taking a break or resting or whatever. So why do this when I could be training instead?"

Undyne gave a low whistle. "That's a different perspective," she commented. "Is that how your world's army is or something? 'Fighting is your life' or something like that?"

"Exactly. It's what I was made for." Jasper frowned as she looked down at the piano. "So that's all I've ever done. I've never done anything else. I was never supposed to do anything else. I was just to fill my role, and that's what I did. Anything extra takes from that."

"Hmm," Undyne hummed. Her hands dropped and she played a quiet chord, an A flat Major. She went on thoughtfully as the notes died down. "I guess I can understand. I mean, it was different for me. I was never forced into this or anything, I could've done anything. I chose the life I have now. But it's the only thing I ever wanted. Being in the Royal Guard was the only thing I ever thought about. All I wanted was to fight. Fight monsters who were stronger than me until I could beat them myself. Fight humans that dared to make their way down here. I didn't want anything else."

Her hands shifted down, and she played another chord. E flat Major.

"I was young back then. Full of energy and excitement and passion. And I'm still passionate, and energized, and excited. That didn't change. But I calmed down. And then I learned something." She looked up at Jasper as she played the chord one more time, one note at a time rather than all together.

Jasper scrunched her eyebrows together. "What's that?"

""I realized I could do that, and with how much I cared about it and worked at it, I could do well at it," Undyne responded. "And I did. But I realized life wasn't about conflict. We rarely have any sort of fighting down here, and I found myself helping out other monsters as a Royal Guard, more than anything else. I became what I wanted in life, but there was more to it than that, and I could experience much more than that. At first, I wanted to fight for fighting's sake, but soon I realized I wanted to fight for so many other things. Other monsters, our interests, our entire way of life. I began fighting for peace instead of conflict, and I got to live out that piece. I threw myself into other things. I learned to play piano, how to cook." She smiled. "I gave myself things to fight for."

"Something to fight for?" Jasper felt idiotic, asking stupid questions and parroting back responses. But she really was curious, she wanted to know.

"Right," Undyne agreed. "Something more than just the kingdom itself. They were specific, important to me. And they made me work harder, and I became a better fighter because of it. It might seem strange now, but it really does make a difference."

Jasper tilted her head, closing her eyes as she was silent. A few moments of this, and she sighed. "I still don't get it," she admitted.

"Hey, that's okay. I'm probably not the best for explaining all of this." Undyne's eyes lit up. "You know what? You should talk to Napstablook. They're the music expert here in Waterfall. I'm sure they'd get this stuff across way better than me. They're right next door, the house on the left."

* * *

"...undyne sent you...? oh..."

The monster that answered the door at the house next door was nothing unlike any monster Jasper had seen previously. They were invisible, and instead of opening the door, they just floated through instead. They had no legs, or arms, or anything of the like. It was a little unsettling.

"I'm napstablook...it's nice to meet you, i guess..." Rather than making eye contact, Napstablook stared at the ground. "...uh, you can come in..."

They floated back through the door. Jasper opened the door and let herself in, closing it gently behind her. She looked around.

This was the smallest house she'd seen in the Underground so far. It only had one room. There was no bed, or anywhere to sit or anything like that. There were few things at all, actually; what she'd come to know as a refrigerator, an extremely primitive communication device (what humans would know as a computer, and an old one by human standards at that), and something else humans would know as a cd player (also rather old by human standards).

Unsure what to do, Jasper stood in the middle of the room, folding her arms.

"this is my cousin..." Napstablook nodded to another monster in the room that she hadn't seen before. They looked like Napstablook, only pink and with some parts of their face more feminine. This monster was floating in front of the computer. Rather than using hands or other limbs to operate the computer, they were using telekinetic powers to do things like type and click. Jasper wasn't unfamiliar with powers like this, but she hadn't expected other living things besides gems to be able to do so.

"So, um..." Jasper frowned, looking around awkwardly. "Undyne said you could tell me about music."

"oh, wow...that's really nice of her..." Napstablook smiled softly. "I can, yeah... music's all about expression."

"Expression?"

"showing how you feel," they clarified. "like, if you're happy...or you're sad...or you're lonely, or depressed..." They shook their...head? "...anyway, it gives those feelings form...gives you a way to share them. in a way, it lets you show people your true self..."

"...Huh." Jasper didn't really know how to respond to that.

"it also..." Napstablook shimmered and stared out a window. "...is really fun to listen to, for a lot of people. sometimes it's really pretty, and it makes people really happy. other times...it's cold and dark, and...makes them really emotional. there's a lot of different kinds, and lots of ways to do all of that...people have different preferences. undyne likes it, and I do too, but...classical piano isn't for everyone."

"No kidding," she muttered.

"maybe you just prefer a different style, or a different genre." They were mumbling to themself now, brainstorming. "or maybe music's just not for you...maybe you just hate it...but we won't know until we try... I know."

A tape in the corner of the room glowed a soft blue, and flew over to the casette player. Napstablook smiled at Jasper hesitantly.

"maybe you'll like this... I like making music, too... I'm not...that good, but..."

"Oh, hush now, Blooky." Napstablook's cousin spoke up for the first time. They turned away from the computer to face Jasper, beaming. "Don't you listen to them, darling. Blooky's absolutely amazing. You won't find a better musician in the entire kingdom. They might not be confident in their own abilities, but..." They winked at Napstablook. "That's what you have me for, right, Blooky dear?"

"heh heh... I guess so..." A blush settled over Napstablook's features, and they stared intently at the ground. "anyway...this is something i've been putting together. it's sort of a...battle theme, for undyne. I've been hoping it'd help make a good impression... it's not finished yet, so it's not that good...sorry..."

"Blooky, darling, stop putting yourself down so much," their cousin demanded. "I've told you, it's a really good start. You really ought to have more pride in your work, dear." With a sigh, they turned back to the computer.

"...sorry..." With the blush growing more noticeable on their face, Napstablook started the casette player.

The song was fast-paced, loud, and quickly caught her attention. It started off with accented notes, almost startlingly. It seemed rather simple at first, but grew more complex as time went on, multiple melodies and harmonies slowly weaving their way in. She could feel the tension, almost see the fight in her mind. That is, until it dropped off rather suddenly, without a sense of completion. It didn't feel...right, in a way. There should've been more.

"so, uh...what do you think...?" Napstablook asked, frowning at the ground.

"...I think I understand it better now," Jasper replied.

"...huh...?" They blinked and looked nervously up at her.

"I kind of get it," she reiterated. "I can feel what you were going for, I think. I can almost see the fight happening in my mind. She's destroying her enemies in it, too, with ease. And I guess I can see why people like this kind of thing."

"so...do you like it...?"

"Yeah, it's okay." She shrugged. "I don't think music's really my thing, but it's better than anything I've ever heard. Or it will be, anyway, when you finish it."

"wow...that's so nice..." Tears glimmered in Napstablook's eyes. "thank you..."

"Uhh..." How was she supposed to reply to that, again? What was it that Toriel told her to say? Oh, right. "You're, uh...welcome."

They blinked again, and then their eyes lit up. "oh, yeah...if you don't think you like music, that's okay...maybe there's something else you'd like better. everyone's different."

"Like what?" she asked.

"like..." They hovered around in thought. "maybe you'd like reading...or writing. or maybe drawing...or cooking...there's a lot of ways to express yourself. you just have to find the right one."

...Drawing, huh?

* * *

"Whatcha doing, kid?" Jasper peeked down from the couch at Asriel, who was laying down on the floor, on his stomach.

"I'm drawing!" Asriel sat down the blue crayon in his hand. Grinning, he held up the piece of paper he drew on so she could see it. "See? It's you, that room with all the echo flowers!" Truthfully, it looked like nothing more than orange, black, and blue blobs, but she supposed that wasn't important. It was what he was trying to get across, right? Something like that, anyway.

"Huh." She flashed a smile at him. "Nice job. You're getting really good." He was no better than when he started. "Since you've got so much skill, how about you teach me how to draw?"

His eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah, why not. Beats staring at the ceiling, anyway."

* * *

 **Next time, in Jaspertale: Thrills, chills, kills!**

 **We're steadily approaching the finish, but there's plenty more to come before that! New adventures! New locations! New characters! Who's it gonna be, who's it gonna be? You'll just have to wait and see, next time! And in the meantime, I'll be getting my life together, because some changes need to be made in order to ensure another successful semester.**


End file.
